Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Markets Asia 20240713

Lose social distancing measures in indonesia, perhaps having a slower recovery. Were still seeing gains. The sti also snapping out of a whole week of losses we saw yesterday, where every day last week was in the red. But we do see singapore the most affected nation in the nation region in the nation. The nikkei 225, watching the boj, a lot of focus on bond buying. Will they scrapped that ¥80 trillion target and launch that unlimited qe . The yen has been satellite steady ahead of the policy decision. Were watching wan related assets given the speculation of kim jonguns health. We still see strength to the korean won. The berlin be indeed were maybe were at 64 u. S. Cents right now. Ceo market calls with the of dalton in about 10 minutes. Lets get first word news now with Corinna Mitchell in new york. Corinna confirmed coronavirus cases around the world is approaching 3 million, according to bloomberg and john hopkins university. More than 2000 people have died so far, the u. S. Talking 53,000 fatalities. New york stocks fell to their lowest and andrew cuomo says the worst point has not passed. State ofto extend its emergency beyond early may, saying the government admits it may not be possible to live lift restrictions before may 5. The first time in 13 days since the number has been below 100. Its unclear how long antivirus any virus extension would last or how it may be widened. European governments are looking to lift lockdowns as countries report a continuing slowing of fatalities. Spain, italy, and france are set to announce a gradual reopening after they reported the smallest rise in fatalities in weeks. The eu reported more than 100,000 deaths and is bracing for the deepest recession in living memory because of the lockdown. And speculation over north Korean Leader kim jongun is intensifying. Amid reports of a medical team sent from china, and unexplained movements of his armored train. Satellite images seem to show a train parked near coastal leadership compound. While sources tell reuters beijing sent doctors and diplomats to pyongyang. But he sees nothing unusual in the north. Global news, 24 hours a day on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im Corinna Mitchell. This is bloomberg. Yvonne . Yvonne the bank of japan kicks off a big week of Central Bank Meetings, or policymakers are expected to take more steps to contain the financial and economic damage caused by coronavirus. Our policy editor Kathleen Hays is here with what we might see. What a boj move toward unlimited bond buying, is that going to be the bazooka that investors are looking for . Kathleen well, that is the question. I dont think the answer is a resounding yes, but let me set this isbecause this is the boj fed, bce, last week seeing their sources were telling them the boj is going to double for bond purchases and pledged to do unlimited bond buying. Who wereof economists surveyed by our ecoteam in tokyo says they do expect to see these more aggressive moves to backup Prime Minister abes ¥1 trillion stimulus that hes got in the pipeline. Is the boj being aggressive enough . Thats the question some are asking. Bnp paribas says they better be because they have to show they are more aggressive than the fed and the ecb. Some say you dont want those currencies, the dollar and the euro, to weaken. The end to strengthen, you that the exports. The chart shows if you look at how aggressive the boj is, they swamp the ecb and the fed because its 110 of gdp, the Balance Sheet they developed. One person says this was a communication strategy. The boj is only buying 14 trillion in bonds. They dont need to drop a target. They dont need to do anything. They just need to buy more bonds. He thinks they will probably announce this but that wont make a big difference. Tom you talked about the size of the bojs Balance Sheet. If they expand it further, does it even touch the edges . What can it do in frankfurt . Kathleen theyve got an ¥80 trillion budget right now. Theyre about ¥14 trillion yearoveryear on april 20 of this year. Whether or not they have that target, they could be buying more targets. Theyve been buying as many as the government issues. It will be interesting to see if they can announce it. As for the fed and the ecb, the fed has done so much. They are expected to sit tight. Maybe Say Something about their outlook right now. It will be interesting to see if jay powell says well, they will reopen and thats a good sign. Interesting to see what the ecb does, increase the size of its Pandemic Purchase Program as rumors says it will. Talk that the fed could actually signal that if they have to, they could buy stocks. Around that by another economist that says its interesting, but right now probably not that think they could consider. A week with nobody doing anything, theres certainly something to be expected from the boj presser this afternoon. And the ecb, well see what they say as well. Yvonne were watching the nikkei 225. Wow, stocks there are roaring from 2 ahead of that boj decision. Tom . Tom yes, csi 300 also up, and the kospi up 1. 5 . Still coming up, text takes focus in a key week. Well look at what to expect from amazon, apple, alphabet, and microsoft, microsoft next. And well dig into markets with guests from dalton investments, j. P. Morgan in oil, and socgen, as well. Play mourad. Plenty more ahead. This is bloomberg. Yvonne just want to recap some of those lines crossing when it comes to japanese markets. We are seeing a bump up when it comes to stocks, the nikkei 225 north of 2 in terms of gains ahead of that boj policy decision. They shortened that meeting to a oneday meeting here today. Were expecting that decision in the next couple hours or so. A lot of anticipation theyre going to have to step up these asset purchases, destabilizing the financial system. Well see if we have change in outlooks. But the topix is also up 1. 2 . A young a steady as a rock ahead of that decision. And yields steady for the 10 year jgb. Well see if theres any indication of qe. Is that going to offend bonds moving here today . Lets take a look at whats also in focus, which is earnings, earnings, earnings. Tech is leading the way on wall street. Googles parent, alphabet, reports facebook wednesday. And amazon on thursday. Some believe amazon might be one of the few pandemic proof stocks out there. Lets bring in su keenan. She has more right now. What kind of clarity are we going to get . Su a key thing many are looking for, particularly from social media stocks, is how much the ad revenue, digital ad revenue, has declined, and what impact thats having. If we start with alphabet, the Parent Company of google, heres a few thing analysts are watching. Just how bad was the hit to ad demand . Scores of businesses and airlines effectively shut down, travel at a standstill, and one of the First Companies to give us a better sense of the digital ad story will be alphabet. Investors are also looking to see how nonsearch engine avenue revenue came in. We only recently heard how many billions alphabet gets from youtube and google cloud, so that will be in focus. And then finally, and this is going to be a theme for all these tech companies, how much expenses were cut. Theres a view that that might offset some of the damage from the pandemic. Facebook also in the spotlight. As you know, facebook warned of adverse effects of the pandemic even before we got to this earnings period. Investors are going to be focused on the trend and also new products. Facebook is one of those companies thats global, with 45,000 workers across the globe working remotely. That will be a good indication of they were able to save, as a result. Tom weve got some more earnings thursday, as well, in terms of tech companies, including amazon. Is that where the focus is going to be this week . Potentially a coronavirus, recession proof stock. Su it certainly looks like it will be a focus. They are up 50 from the march low. Take a look at all the other Companies Reporting this week have done. Apple has still got some green year to date, but youre seeing, or at least not as down as much. Microsoft has got the green, but apple and twitter have taken hits. Amazon investors are going to expect strong numbers because of how well theyre doing in terms of the surge of online sales. Amazon got upgrades from three different firms ahead of earnings. Goldman is now saying theyre raising their target to 2900. They see opportunity stemming not just from the pandemic, but the potential for prolonged dislocation in traditional retail. 1315 ofords, may the population routinely shopped online here in the u. S. Analysts are saying most of the people in the u. S. Have been forced to shop online. Theyre thinking that could have longstanding benefits for a company like amazon. Also, theyre looking at the grocery numbers. We do know a lot of emphasis has been placed on grocery service. And lastly, if thats affecting a lot of the thirdparty settlers sellers. So, it will be an interesting week. Back to you. Tom thank you very much indeed. Coming up, the market is looking expensive. Is he right . Well put that in perspective. We are joined with a Market Strategy as the pandemic continues to rail corporate earnings. This is bloomberg. Yvonne lets get to the latest business flash headlines. Boeing is walking away from its proposed merger with ann briere and in years of talks, the discrete faces a virus ravaged market. The partnership would have given boeing jets to compete against airbus. The collapse will we can boeing when it is already dealing with the slow down and continued rounding of the 737 max. Airbus isnt without problems, too. Is leaking money and urging cost cuts its warning its leaking money and surging cost cuts urging cost cuts. It may not reflect the worst case an area. Airbus says its rude its juggling earnings times. Virgin atlantic is said to be considering a range of rescue plans, including government loans. Request forsons more than 500 Million Pounds of funding has met with some government resistance. It was Partner Delta Airlines said it wont offer any money, and Virgin Atlantic is now facing insolvency. Emirates is dipping into cash reserves to refund customers as the coronavirus slashes travel demands. They have half a million request pending and have Government Supports as it aims to clear the backlog by august. Airlines resisted refunds as it pushes customers to ticket vouchers. They say they will burn through 63 billion in the growing quarter. Stocks are trading modestly higher as investors weigh virus progress against economic data. Joining us for some insight into this, as the market from santa is someoneifornia, who manages approximately 3 billion. Thank you for your time this morning, this evening, this morning our time. Is it enough for you that certain countries, if you look at places like europe, starting to relax some of those curves in terms of those restrictions to limit the movement of people . Is that enough for you to stop adding exposure at this point . Think that the coronavirus has a much more broader impacts on the market than the decline in the stock market in 2008 and 2009. And the reason is because will become back from covid19, the world will have changed somewhat. First of all, the globalization that weve seen over the years, where customers stop whatever was cheapest in terms of production, probably has peaked. With concerns about cybersecurity and now, with concerns about viruses, the process of it taking place with the decoupling of china and the u. S. Is accelerated. And Many Companies will be much more concerned about the supply chain Going Forward. And the impact on companies is that revenues will probably be lower and profits will almost certainly be lower. And so this is something that will have farreaching effects beyond price disruptions that were seeing now because people are staying home. The other changes taking place is just Consumer Behavior and also behavior related to working remotely. And those will have impacts on different sectors of the economy in different ways. And i think that because its going to take some time for the weus to work itself out, should expect a period of volatility, and we should expect that different parts of the market will bottom at different times depending on certain circumstances that affect that sector. Tom theres a lot of centralbank action this week, of course. Who are you looking at in terms of potential policy moves . And how, to what extent, refocused on a line to your strategies of centralbank action Going Forward . Belita there are a lot of Central Banks meeting this week. And i think uniformly, across the board, they will all choose to stay accommodative. The thing is that lower Interest Rates and greater amounts of purchases of securities from the market will help with credit flows when that is a problem. For example, in japan, theres really not much of an issue. They will make interestfree loans to banks on all sorts of collateral. Thats been in place for a while. Interest rates are already negative there. In the u. S. , the fed will have this pretty much unlimited purchase, open market purchases, to keep credit flowing as well. So while Central Banks will keep policies accommodative, they arent as big a factor as other times in the market in terms of helping to get the economy back on its feet. It certainly is helpful that governments are making payments to people. Thats very meaningful. But, you know, what stands by Central Banks make sense across the board and will continue. But it will not lift the economy the way that some progress on lifting the lockdowns because of, you know, progress on medicines or antivirals or antiinflammatories could do. And we, all around the world, are watching to see when the lockdowns are lifted to see how much activity is raised. Yvonne and you bring in a good point about how the impacts of covid19 could be worse than what weve seen in the Global Financial crisis. Why do you think were seeing bull markets back here in asia . , cih it was back in a bull market the past month or so ms ci asia was back in a bull market the past month or so. They werent falling suit like oil markets, pressing in harsh realities when it comes to the virus pricing in harsh realities when it comes to the virus. Belita its difficult to predict what markets will do in the coming months. And they are very volatile. I think the volatility will continue. So, i cant really predict whats going to happen, but what i can say is going to happen is when markets allow you a chance to buy you a Good Business at a cheap price, and when the economics of that business makes sense longterm, and when management is highly incentivized to run the business, as well, it makes sense to invest. I think volatility gives a lot of opportunity to People Like Us to step in and take longterm bets in places where the opportunities are there. For instance, in the cases of energy, were investing in Companies Involved in energy transportation. And they do very well, pretty much regardless of what happens in the oil price. Thats one areas were finding opportunities. Another is countries like japan. Japan has been disregarded, hasnt gone up as much as other countries markets have done in the developed world because japanese countries have had a habit of storing a lot of cash on their Balance Sheet. And in this particular circumstance, its actually a really good thing for them because they are not concerned about having to refinance debt or having to borrow more cash right now. They can just go ahead and run their businesses. And this gives them the opportunity to do a couple of things. One, buy back stock. Two, look for Strategic Acquisitions that will help them longterm. Yvonne maybe give us some examples, too. What we have seen a lot of companies, globally, other cut dividends, but not doing much when it comes to stock buybacks. What are you seeing a particular in japan . Belita this is really interesting. The Japanese Corporates announced share buybacks that spiked compared to last year, which is really fascinating when you think about it. And its because they realize they can do this and it will actually stand out and be different than everybody else. Ill give you an example of the company. So we wanted to be proactive in Encouraging Companies to do this before many of the Management Companies have been invested. With actually written letters and announced share buybacks. So it actually is happening. So ill give you an example of one company. Its a Midsize Company in japan. Its just under 1 billion. And its the largest japanese district or of semiconductors. Distributor of semiconductors. If you look at financials, youll see is cash on the Balance Sheet, minus liabilities, account for more than 104 of the market cap. Thats just a static. Youd never see that just astounding. Youd never see that in the u. S. This particular country trades at Companies Like this, there are quite a few of them in japan. Tom thank you very much for your time and insights on the opportunities in japan. Also, energy transport, as well. Lets check in now on how the markets are doing. There is that risk on move. Governments some ease restrictions in terms of coronavirus restrictions put in place. Look at the nikkei, up 2. 2 . The hsi up 1. 5 . China looking relatively strong, csi 300 up over 1 despite industrial profits in march falling by about 34 . That is how the markets are looking. Plenty more coming up. This is bloomberg. It is 10 29 in hong kong and shanghai, 10 29 p. M. In new york. Support itsdging to virus weakened economy saying the nationwide lockdowns be shortlived. The pboc says fundamentals are unchanged and it will make Funds Available for businesses hit by the pandemic and global fallout. China intoas pitched its first Economic Contraction in decades with an increasing reliance on domestic demand. Letting Neighborhood Stores of gradually. Individual shops can deploy a their normal staff and about social distancing rules. All shopping malls will remain closed until at least may 3. Leading port authorities in the middle east and america signed a declaration committing to remain open amid the pandemic. Led by singapore, the collaboration to keep global trade moving and supply chain functioning as best it can. Insures shipsn can continue to dock and crews and short personnel will be kept as safe as possible. The u. K. Prime minister returns to work at downing street later monday for the first time in three weeks after his coronavirus scare. Wheelchair the regular morning meeting to fight against the infection and discuss when the u. K. Might be allowed to go to work. Johnson spent three nights in a London Hospital after contracting covid19. Global news 24 hours a day, onair and online on tictoc and twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries quick take by bloomberg powered by more than 2700 journalists and in moreed analysts than 120 countries. Lets do a market check and risk sentiment this monday given the fact we are loosen more governments the restrictions and slowly reopening their economies. Than stocks higher more 1 , u. S. Futures turning positive. Nifty futures looking good and the session in mumbai later on but we are watching crude prices up, wti following falling and Brent Holding around 21. 27. The big focus today is the bank of japan and what they are going to be doing. Are they going to be boosting asset purchases . Is it enough for the market to satisfy investors . We are seeing gains of more than 2 on the nikkei 225. Japanese yen, doesnt seem like a whole lot that will deter the yen traders out there. We are pretty flat when it comes to bonds as well as currencies in tokyo. Looking at other assets like the won, as weor yen look for more clues as we digest the claims of kim jonguns health. We saw jitters last weekend we stabilized today with the kospi up 1. 5 , but the yenwon could be one to watch as it is exposed. The aussie, up more than 1 . Tom oil edging lower as swelling stockpiles make it difficult for leading producers to balance the market i curbing output. Drilling in onshore american fields dropped the most in 40 years after new york futures plunged below zero for the first time in history. Oil has lost more than 70 this year as lockdowns worldwide sap consumption. But spring in the head of aipac Commodities Research at jpmorgan scott. We have seen the saudis and others start to cut production and output. Weve seen the shattering of some of the supplies out of the u. S. , but the demand picture remains weak at best. Is it the demand picture eclipsing this for the market at this point . We think that is the main driver. We are Forecasting Global demand to contract this month Something Like 24 Million Barrels a day and then may and june 10 also have maybe not sharp contractions, but particularly severe. We held a call recently with the demand down 9bal Million Barrels a day, which would be the worst weve ever had so we are coming into the next couple of months, which is for globalnge point storage and likely more so in the u. S. Than globally. Are opec doing enough to address the crisis . The moves suggest no. What more do they need to be doing . Out a note recently that we think opec will have to come back again as soon as they do a Virtual Meeting in june and come back with either firming up the second half of the year. There is a lot of weight and see, as well. Lets see how the economies gradually come off a locked. How does demand recover and how do consumers change behaviors . In fairness to opec and analysts, it is difficult it is a moving picture, the demand outlook. Yvonne it has been one week since we saw this may contract for wti go negative. Has anything changed in the last to think this you was an anomaly or could things repeat again when we talk about the june contract . Bett we dont think it will as severe as what we have seen, the june, july. Etfs will probably be better positioned this coming round. We dont dispute jpmorgan published a note around u. S. Storage capacity still very tight. We assume the market is trying to avoid the pushing storage from reaching over 90 in may and june and really, u. S. Production shutins could be a Million Barrels a day in may and an extra half a Million Barrels a day in june to avoid such levels, but i think it would be difficult to see the extremes we saw in the last contract in our view. Yvonne thats interesting. Brent seems to be immune from going negative and the narrative doesnt have to deal with physical settlements. Is that still the case . Is brent a safer place to put your bets in a way versus wti . Mean, a lot of our coverage in asia, a lot of it is benchmarked on crude grades around brent so our brand forecast this quarter averages 27, but we have a Price Scenario of 17. What we are seeing in the u. S. Is one, our analysis suggests u. S. Shale production is peeking out in april, just as the country went on lock down. You then have the demand impacts and of course with covid19, youve got logistical issues because if you are trying to transport railroad or pipeline oil pipeline from shale field gulf Coast Weather refineries or ports, there are logistical challenges. Is someone there to help you transport the crude, and youve obviously seen a big spike in oil tanker day rates, so you look and see is it now as economic to ship it from the u. S. To asia . Obviously a lot of earnings out this week including some of chinas oil majors. How are they positioned amidst all of this . Scott i think the market, like us, is expecting sharp losses for the refiners and even this quarter, you would expect a little bit if we carry on the trajectory of oil prices for this quarter, as well but looking through that, if we look at last downturns in the oil cycle whether it is 2015 or 2009, you find the nearterm refining chemical stocks came to outperform for upstream oil service names. A point weve highlighted recently, if you look at Chinese Oil Production data for First Quarter, it implies production was almost up 3 year on year which would make it highest one q weve had since 2011 and Gas Production up sort of around 10 , so while oil did average about 50 in the First Quarter. Perceivee market might some upstream to volume impacts, prices, oil prices werent too and the data at least on a country perspective suggests we could be more surprise in the upstream segments. In terms of inventories in china, are we seeing the chinese take advantage of the low price and restock . I think we will through this quarter. We published analysis recently that said with the cope with 19 operation impacts perhaps in march, china didnt fill up the tanks as much as we would think, but we would expect a recovery in april and onwards in this quarter. Obviously bear in mind these are jpmorgans estimates and the government doesnt publish as much on commercial storages as it used to but we would expect policy when we looked at previous downturns, anything below 50 brent the government tends to inventories tend to build in china, which we would expect. Thanks for your insight, scott darling, jpmorgan. Leave itsaid to lockdown on may 4. The latest next. This is bloomberg. Yvonne lets do a check of the latest headlines. Bank says firstquarter results were above expectations. The bank says its group profit before tax came in at 200 6 Million Euros with a net income of 66 Million Euros. Revenues are around 6. 4 Million Euros compared with estimates of 5. 7 billion. Executives at citigroup are wrestling with a concrete and has most of wall street in a similar state. How workers can ride elevators to their offices once fire us restrictions are lifted. Social distancing remains in place. Citigroup cautions employees they face a slow gradual return and many may be forced to work from home for the rest of the year. Jpmorgan is looking to help Bluechip Companies untethered trillions through a new technology partnership. The bank is working with a platform that provides working capital solutions. Liquidity ofte suppliers of Investment Grade companies. Companies will be paid earlier or pay on the banks Balance Sheet to keep money flowing. Global confirmed cases of the coronavirus are approaching 3 million according to Data Collected by bloomberg and john hopkins university, but the last the u. S. New cases in and europe are slowing. Lets bring in Rishaad Salamat. The situation seems to be easing but the u. S. Is still seeing a rise. What is the latest in terms of numbers . Rishaad what weve got at the moment, italy reporting the fewest tax over a 24 hour period in six weeks. France likewise, the least in a month. Spain having an increase, but the smallest in the month. The Prime Minister saying his country will start easing lockdown restrictions on may 4. That is a key test of the restart of public life and these economies which have been in mobilized by the pandemic, but tandem withly in the cautious reopening in several countries, germany,. Ustria, and some others the pressure on italy has been building as it suffers the highest virus related death toll in europe. Saying theinister second wave of infections would cause a resurgence of deaths and said it could cause irreversible damage to the economy. Economy. Moving fory is also a big slowdown, trailing growth of euro area appears. It had a contraction of the course of the year. Manufacturing, wholesalers would be the first Industry Groups allowed to reopen and then retailers and museums follow a couple weeks after that. Ifn potential normalization all goes well june 1 with bars, restaurants, and hairdressers also potentially opened. Lets turn our attention to the u. S. , because in new york, coronavirus deaths topped 367 on sunday. Thats the lowest in a month and the governor of new york state sketching out a phased reopening the would begin with construction, manufacturing at the start of the middle of next month. Contracts arp contrast to the Virus Outbreak in new york. Yvonne Boris Johnson, going back to work later on today. I understand hes going to go to a bit of a light work schedule, but he has a lot of work to do. Rishaad yes, the Prime Minister will later on this morning chair his first meeting of the covid19 so cold war cabinet. That is the first he has done since three weeks ago. He set to resume his role hosting televised press conferences, expected to announce plans for how the lockdown should be eased, as well, and there is a hint they could modify elements of the lockdown before the may 7 deadline and all against a rather stark warning coming from the item club. An Economic Modeling system which is similar to what the treasury uses and they are saying it could take as long as three years for the u. K. Economy to fully recover from the fallout of this pandemic and as the damage to jobs and growth unfolds, the eu club saying it would take until 2023 for the economy to reach the levels we had at the end of last year. His is giving you an idea of how much damage this pandemic is really wrecking on all of these economies. Yvonne thank you, Rishaad Salamat joining us with the latest. Coming up, closer to the goal of taking on amazon as his empire tests its Online Shopping portal. This is bloomberg. Tom he was buying oil as it plunged last monday. In thisatzker asked him exclusive interview how hes been putting money to work over the last several weeks of volatility. Hedgedeep it pretty well hedges couldnt us from losing some money, but we still have quite a bit so im not crying about it and we have as ive always kept a large amount of cash or Cash Equivalents for a stormy day, so i think there are going to be very Interesting Times ahead and while you have to be extremely careful in this market, and we can discuss that, i think it will also be some good opportunities, but i cant talk about it shortterm. Shortterm, i think you may have some big down drafts. Thats where i am with that. Carl where else have you found opportunities to make money in this environment, which isnt easy . I understand you bought oil. I want you to tell me about that. Carl that is a much smaller item. When oil went down we own a refinery. We own what i think is a very 70d refinery and we own percent of it and when oil started sinking like that, i called him up. Usually, i dont get involved. Space,ot some storage everyone is going crazy for Storage Space but he said yeah, it is hard to get the trade karen whatever. Trade through and whatever. They did great job because they set it up quickly and we set up a great account. We made some not, money on it but relatively mbx, but, nothing like c it was really fascinating. Youll never see that again in history, i dont believe, where they have to pay you to take their oil, which was up to 35,000 35 a barrel. It was an interesting point in history because youve got to look at risk reward and sometimes when you do those futures, and they have funds that do the futures and the same thing again as you had in 2008 or any of these times before the market really breaks playing the future market in the oil game or in any commodity, for that matter is not for the faint of heart. Lets turn our attention back to the coronavirus and pandemic. Right now, it is wreaking havoc. I mentioned occidental petroleum. Are havingapped they to pay Warren Buffett in stock for the Financing Deal that you opposed. That must make you boiling mad. And i saidsten it and im not going to belabor it anymore because we have three people on the board, i cant freely speak about it, so i respectfully disagree a little bit with what you are saying cashstrapped. In other words, i think occidental has a lot of great assets, ok . That being said, i cant argue with you that it was one of the most ridiculous deals ive ever seen and ive said that publicly, but those days are over. We are now on the board, working together and hopefully, i think that there were things i think the shareholders will eventually be rewarded, i think, so the risk reward is in your favor. I think. Yvonne that was investor carl icahn in our exclusive interview with erik schatzker. A testing of an Online Shopping portal days after entering multibilliondollar agreement with facebook. Lets get more with our asia credit reporter. Whatsapp, playing a huge part in the deal. But can you tell us . Reliance industry has started testing its Online Shopping portal three days after facebook said it would invest in assets controlled. Has already gone live in three neighborhood surrounding mumbai. It is basically leveraging a deal that gives the Company Access to whatsapps 400 million users in india. Quarterting of the starts up a platform to take on amazon and walmarts gift card. He is going to now access a slice of indias ecommerce expected to grow 200 billion by 2027. Whatsapp with Small Businesses connecting with customers. He himself is estimating the partnership with whatsapp will mean 13 million momandpop shores could take payments from customers in the neighborhood. The process has been kept simple. Tom what are we seeing in terms of credit markets and risks of contagion . Indias credit markets were hit last week when a local unit of Franklin Templeton decided to wind up 4. 1 billion of indian debt. That is indias biggest ever forced closure and adds to the worries to the problems of the nations credit market where bodies have been piling up. One of the major issues in india is that india has one of the smallest Corporate Bond markets among Major Economies and there arent enough trading partners in the market, thereby making its market fairy in liquid and when e yvonne well have to leave it there, but thank you so much. Our asia credit reporter joining a single by with the latest. We are also counting down the boj decision that could be happening any minute now. Keep it here on bloomberg. Haslinda almost 11 00 in singapore. Im haslinda amin. Yvonne im in gunman. Im yvonne man. The boj opens a week of Central Bank Meetings with policymakers under pressure to support economies through the coronavirus and a looming recession. Decline as its slumping demand and the swelling glut of reinforced pressure on prices, drilling and onshore u. S. Rigs have grown the most in 14 years. Speculation around kim jonguns health as china sent a medical team to north korea. Well get the latest claims. This is Bloomberg Markets asia. On, firmlyt is risk in the money as we await the decision by the boj. Me this ecb, and fed week and growing pressure to support slowing economies. Also in focus, a big earnings we can asia, 600 companies out with numbers. 225, up more than 2 . We have thes, pretty flooded. The boj set to increase its asset purchase as the economy slows. The question is, it will twounce unlimited qe prevent bankruptcies. In other markets, the csi 300 index of 9 10. 9 , the hang seng up 1. 5 . Some reports suggesting hong kong is considering easing some social distancing measures if new virus cases remain low. The asx 200 index, currently up. 3 . Some good news last week on the virus hunting hong kong, three days last week where we saw no new infections. The rest of the markets, we are still watching oil markets and we talked about how it has resumed its slide. With wti, back to around 15. 89, off of session lows, but there is still the whole worry of demand destruction, Storage Capacity that continues to run out despite saudi arabia starting this production cuts earlier than the may 1 start date. Aussie dollar seems to be outperform her, sustaining gains of close to 1 , really pricing in or at least being optimistic about these governments loosening restrictions slowly but surely, reopening economies and the korean won, we are watching those claims of kim jonguns health. Seeing a bit of strength into the korean won as we heard from no unusual seeing movements in north korea at the moment. Nifty futures, up nine. 9 . The rupiah, 76. 45 and it was up 12 basis points for your india 10 year. Looking at the first word news, lets go to Karina Mitchell in number of the confirmed coronavirus cases around the world has topped 3 million according to data bloomberg and john hopkins university. The u. S. Alone suffered 53,000 fatalities. New york state deaths fell to their lowest level in nearly a month and the governor says the worst point has passed. European governments are moving toward lifting virus lockdowns as hardhit countries report continuing slowing of fatalities. Spain and italy and france are set to announce a gradual reopening after all three nations reported their slowest rising deaths in weeks. Thanu has reported more 100,000 fatalities overall and is bracing for the deepest recession in living memory because of the lockdown. Itsa is pledging to support virus weakened economy saying the impact on the nation lockdown should be shortlived. The pboc says fundamentals are unchanged and it will make Funds Available for businesses hit by the pandemic and global fallout. The virus has pitched china into the first Economic Contraction in decades with an increasing reliance on domestic demand. To spur a recovery. Speculation over north Korean Leader kim jongil and is intensifying amid reports of a medical team sent from china and unexplained movements of his train. Rulers like one used by have to compound while reuters was told beijing center dot doctors and diplomats to pyongyang. Global news 24 hours a day, onair and online on quicktake and twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120. Ountries im Karina Mitchell. This is bloomberg. Yvonne lets get back to the bank of japan, moments from details from its policy decision but markets are bracing. We are seeing the tokyo market today, decent gains of 2 or more. Lets bring in economics professor and former bank of japan member, joining us on the line. Seems like markets are expecting something from the bank of japan and. The nikkei report last week that might have to scrap that 80 million and target and go unlimited qe. How likely is that . I think it is very likely because for many years, the bank of japan put ¥80 trillion, japanese Government Bond purchases this amount specified in the statement, so it is expected the bank of japan does that, meaning the bank of japan , butpurchase unlimited qe to me, it doesnt really change anything about their current practices because the bank of japan has been purchasing far over the trillion years, simply because they already purchased too much, so if they purchase one half of the bonds issued. Trueby eliminating a trillion yen ¥80 trillion doesnt mean they will buy massively. The bank of japan still has capital control so they are stabilizing at 0 . As long as they keep this target target, it means the bank of then will buy determined by ministry of finance and private protesters investors. It is not that the bank of japan will decide how much they are going to buy. Of course, if the bank of japan is going to drop the target and say they are going to buy massively, that leads to the sharp decline in the 10 year yield but i think that is they will not do. Reality, that amount. That is what i am thinking. Lets Pay Attention to what happens, whether they are going to make any changes to that. Islinda you say even if qe announced, it is more symbolic than significant. How can the bank of japan help businesses it needs to get credit to businesses . What tools can there be for the boj . Yes, march 16, they introduced a new facility for providingcial bank the loans to the private mitigating the requirements, so now the bank can use bank loans to get cheap money from bank of japan has 0 , but there is not a much demand. Also, there is huge demand from small to Medium Enterprises getting financial support, but banks are not utilizing that facility much so today, bank of japan is going to change has to do something about it so people are thinking the bank of japan is going to mitigate even further but to me, i think what bank of japan should do is providing to the Interest Rate to finance the commercial banks because right now, Central Banks are so worried commercial banks are worried about taking too much credit so they are not willing to do a lot of lending to the private subsidyunless there is or guarantee, so yes . Yvonne the boj, that decision has come out now. They have maintained that policy balance rate at 0. 1 and maintain the 10 year jgb yield target at about 0 . At this point, they are strengthening measures to support corporate financing and will conduct further active purchases of jgbs and tbills. Buying ofincrease Corporate Bonds as well as commercial paper. We havent exactly got the number of how much more they are boosting Corporate Bonds at this point, but the main headline, jgb target at about 0 will conduct further active purchases of jgbs and tbills. Your response of our . All of this . Sayuri most of prize. The measure is going to buy more commercial paper and Corporate Bonds, but that is mainly for and they can get a lot of bank loans from commercial banks for the most important thing is what is happening to sne and that is an area of the bank of japan has to do more, collaborating with the government, like in the case of the United States, like a Lending Program or main Street Lending facilities. That is necessary right now. Like you said, no surprise. The boj will purchase necessary amounts of jgbs with no limit. The boj will actively by longterm and shortterm bonds. Unlimited qe by the looks of this, the boj will purchase necessary amount of jgbs with no limit. At this point in time, what assumptions are you making about the depth of the economic slowdown in japan . Right now, im very concerned about what will happen to many small, Medium Enterprises. They have a lot of debt and partly because of the 2020 olympics, they made investments in construction and innovation, hotel, restaurants and so on. If they can not get sufficient income now, Many Companies cannot survive and go bankrupt. To what government can do to help those companies, in this area, i feel the bank of japan and government are reluctant to support sme, comparable to what the u. S. Is doing. One last line from the bank of japan, ditching the ceiling and buying each Corporate Bond. We mentioned the unlimited jgb buying and when it comes to the 5 2020 forecast, between to 3 , so still in negative territory, the range of negative five to negative three for 2020. When it comes to economic forecasts, is that optimistic from the bank of japan . Sayuri the bank of japan estimates 5 in 2020 . To 3 is the range, yes. Sayuri thats reasonable. I think that is quite reasonable. They made a big adjustment downward this time and before, they were always very optimistic so this time, i think they made a quite realistic estimate. But it questions what else the bank of japan can do . Yvonne right. We heard then narrative they are going to go unlimited but you are saying there is not going to be much material difference to how much they buy and bond purchases . Perhaps we see more when it comes to the smes. Is it mostly going to be fiscal stimulus that will lead the way in the recovery for japan . But the fiscal stimulus, the government is doing but it is so slow because part of the program is the japanese government it is not i. T. Based so everyone has to write the paper and submitted at the window and it takes too much time. Fiscal policy is really not getting timely support so that is a problem and the government and bank of japan has to seek Something Else for small to Medium Enterprises. Haslinda more lines coming through, the boj sees the and 0. 7 2020 core cpi 0. 3. The boj says price wrote removed price momentum from Forward Guidance. Where is inflation headed . Are we looking at zero . Sayuri that is reasonable because at this moment, the decline in inflation is coming from energy prices. That is temporary. Oil prices are too low, so have ay 2020 we will negative inflation, but that doesnt mean we will have negative inflation for many years. Things, soemporary excluding energy impact, still, the bank of japans underl ying is weak. That doesnt change. Haslinda do you expect the boj to ditch its 2 inflation target . Was always clear that achieving 2 is so difficult and everybody knew that for over seven years the bank of japan did everything they could do, but couldnt achieve it so people questioned whether the bank of japan should change the 2 target. I would often say the bank of japan can introduce target range of one to 3 but i think the bank of japan knows that, but they have to find the right timing to do it because if they dont do it carefully, then the the of japan gives impression to people the bank of japan is giving up the target, so giving up monetary easing so the timing is important. Some ofwhen it came to their fullyear forecast for inflation for 2021, core cpi they are saying 0 to 0. 7 . 0 are expecting at least when it comes to inflation. What else are we missing here . You mentioned there needs to be more done with small to medium businesses and fiscal stimulus. It is just not enough. Tot can the bank of japan do make it not seem like they are still behind from other big Central Banks like the fed or the ecb . Example, between japan and the United States, the difference is in the case of the United States, the treasury soks together to create this the fed can take risk by doing these Corporate Bond purchases, main street financing facilities but japan is not doing that kind of collaboration with the government. Isrefore, the bank of japan still worried about risk. I know mr. Corona will deny if somebody asks a question to him whether the bank of japan worry so much about the Balance Sheet, they will say no, but i feel that unless the central bank get some kind of support like u. S. Thesury is doing for reserve, it is difficult for the central bank to take a lot of risk by itself. Way, given the moves we are seeing from the bank of japan, do you think the central bank is financing the governments massive fiscal stimulus . Sayuri yes. Wethe case of emergency, should not pay too much attention to monetization of Government Bonds because right now, Credit Demand is so low. Only the government and centralbank have to do a lot of intervention so if the government is going to issue lots of Government Bonds to do a lot of support, then obviously the central bank has to finance those bonds unless there is no large domestic investors, so in this kind of emergency time, it is almost no difference between direct monetization and indirect monetization, meaning buying bonds from market. I dont think there is a clear difference right now. Is there a risk of deflation . Means ok, so deflation constant declining prices. I dont think that will happen. In terms of statistics, this year, we will see negative inflation in japan, mainly because of sharp decline in otherwise, i, but really do not see a constant deflation next year. This year, possible the next year not. If you look at the food crisis and daily product prices, the prices are picking up. Cons, so iros and dont think there is a persistent deflation for the next few years. We are looking at the japanese yen right now and still seeing a little bit of strength, but this currency basically has gone through a lot of shock and off and has been trading in a tight range. Do you expect it to stay that way for the japanese yen . This is very different. When the crisis happened, this the yen, people thought was going to appreciate, but it happened in a short period but it is moving around, quite stable. That is quite different this time. I think it is become some japanese Institutional Investors in falling stocks bonds, so that creates helps the yen depreciate and balance is not good, we have a lot of export. 107, 108, that is good for Japanese Corporate sectors. Yvonne we appreciate your time and analysis as these headlines come through. Sayuri shirai, former boj policy board member on the line. The bank of japan maintained the policy rate, adjusted Forward Guidance and said they would go unlimited qe when it comes to bond buying. To be the market investing what they were expecting or anticipating today. Plenty of more ahead. Weve got to india markets, as well. This is bloomberg. Yvonne the boj, lets focus on japan nearing three weeks under the state of emergency to tackle the virus. The government is weighing the need to extend the curbs beyond early may. Singapore has become asias most infected nation after the likes of china and india. Lets bring in selling a wedding, joining us for more. Lets start with japan. How much longer might japan might extend the state of emergency . Selina they could extend this as long as seven weeks beyond the plan to lift it may 6. Cases reportedw in osaka and tokyo start to fall, but the rate of change is not as fast as expected. Japan has so far avoided the full lockdown of western countries, businesses like bars, hairdressers remain open, but authorities in japan dont have the legal power to punish people who disobey these requests so instead, they have been strongly urging people to cut interactions with others by 80 and have been urging people to stay at home, especially during the Upcoming National holiday. Japan has been criticized for a lack of testing. A professor at Kings College and a former World Health Organization chief said chandan japan needs to expand Testing Capacity to 100,000 day and says the true number infected in japan is 10 times or more than the official count of more than 13,000 cases and for context, so far japan has only tested 130,000 people, which is just a fraction of many other countries. Singapore, making headlines. Cases have been growing. What is the scale of the outbreak at this point . Selina it has been a concerning , the smallest population now has the most infections in asia after china india, reporting more than 900 new cases sunday, bringing the total number to more than 13,000, however taking the number of cases in japan. This is a cautionary tale for countries that have overlooked disadvantaged populations. Singapore and its leadership were seen as standards for containment, but experts say wasapores major weak point failing to do largescale Community Testing early enough within the foreign Labor Community, which comprises 1 5 of singapores population and now more than 70 of singapores total infections. Closegrant workers living quarters, dormitories, many people sharing one room and with this confinement, there have been reports of hygiene issues, lack of sanitation, clogged with lets toilets, none of which bodes well for containing the environmen virus. The government is now testing the foreign Labor Community and has shifted any healthy workers to temporary housing facilities. Yvonne that was our china correspondent selina wang joining us from beijing. Waiting for the japanese markets to reopen after the lunch break to digest what we heard from the boj, having embarked on this unlimited quantitative easing and buying of asset purchases and dropping the ¥80 trillion target. I was expected from the market, but it seemed to the boj had to do something bold before the fed and ecb meet this week just to show they are not behind the curve. The main thing maintain the policy balance. Further into negative territory when it came to rates and they adjusted the fullyear guidance for the 2020 forecast, from negative five to 3 . We were speaking to the former boj member saying that is a reasonable range for the bank of japan right now. We are seeing some strength coming through to the japanese currency but it is marginal. We are Holding Around 107. 33. Nikkei futures, continuing to see the gain of more than 2 . We will cut you down to the markets, coming back online in about four minutes time. This is bloomberg. Nowadays you do more from home than ever before. The xfinity my account app puts you in control with Digital Tools to give you the help you need when you need it. Get fast and easy answers with personalized help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Change your wifi password to a phrase thats easy to remember. Even troubleshoot your services on your own. Were working to make things a little easier for everyone. Download the xfinity my account app today. Lets get your first word headlines. We begin in japan. The bank of japan has ended its short policy meeting with a pledge to purchase japanese Government Bonds with no limit. The measures raise the previous dealing of ¥82 billion. The policy rate remains at 0. 1. It is forecasting gdp to come in at 5 for 2020, and says the economy is facing an increasingly severe situation. Isying in japan, the country to extend its virus lead state of emergency beyond early may. The government admits it may not be possible to lift the restrictions on may 6. Tokyo reported their second infections, the first time in 13 days that the number has dipped low 100. It is unclear how long any virus extension would last or how it would be widened. India is to let small Neighborhood Stores reopen gradually one month into a nationwide locked that savaged the economy. Individual shops can deploy a maximum of half their normal staff and all must wear safe masks face masks and adopt social distancing. All shopping malls will remain closed until at least may 3. U. K. Prime minister Boris Johnson returns to work at downing street monday for the first time in three weeks after his coronavirus scare. Towill chair the meeting and courtney the fight against the meeting, and discuss whether the u. K. Will be allowed to go back to work. Johnson spent three nights in intensive care after contracting covid19. Global news 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. I am Karina Mitchell. This is bloomberg. Yvonne lets take a look at markets right now. The japan markets reopened out of a lunch break, reacting to that boj decision, unlimited qe cap, also adjusting their foreign guidance. They have cut their full year 2020 forecast to 5 to 3 growth. Also raising the ceiling when it comes to buying Corporate Bonds. The boj takes action. We are looking at the markets. We continue to see the gains above 2 for the nikkei 225, and the topix getting 1. 24 . The japanese yen, we are seeing strength, but still hovering around that 1. 07 mark. One base move when it comes to the 10 year. It looks like this was largely expected, given the nikkei report we saw last week, which was very similar to what sources were saying back then. One line crossing through, the presser from governor kuroda will be happening at 3 30 p. M. , japan time. That will be something to look out for to see any more clues for what is to come for the bank of japan. It seems like there is unlimited qe, but is there a capacity or a willingness to follow through on that . Yen ticking higher after the boj maintained rates on its purchases of Government Bonds. Lets discuss this and all things fx with the head of e. M. Strategy. Always good to have you with us. We have the boj embarking unlimited qe. This morning as well, the philippine governor saying he will do whatever it takes. The question really is whether it is enough for emerging markets . Think in japans case, the fact that the boj is offering its policies is good for how much they think the economy will contract. But incremental action is probably not the big driver. We can see that this morning with the yen a little bit stronger after the boj announcement. It is also relative. It is probably extending faster. Did ayears ago when boj lot of stimulus, it began to weaken, other banks on the sideliness. The action today may not be sufficient. Coming at a time when emerging markets are also gorging in money, how could this play out in the markets . Guest i think the important thing for currencies is not the liquidity. The central bank provided a lot of liquidity to markets, but what we see historically is yen currencies need growth and they need growth for their currencies to do well. Until we reach a point where we are at the bottom of a growth cycle and momentum starts to turn higher on a global basis, em currencies probably will still remain a little weak with asymmetric downside risks. Seeinga we are also Dollar Strength corresponding with the weakness in em currencies. Could that raise the risk of asian debt . Where do you see this going and the impact coming from that . Guest good question. One of the big risks we saw coming into 2020, given the coronavirus, was the big buildup in other liabilities that has occurred over the past decade when countries and companies were accessing very cheap credit. There is concern Going Forward. It is probably more of a concern for emerging markets credit than developed markets because they have backstops in place to help the Corporate Credit market, where that is not necessarily the case for emerging markets. Similar to currency, the big question mark right now is how big the negative growths will last. The growth starts to rebound quite strongly in the second half of the year, then that is ok. But if there is more prolonged earth downturn, the growth downturn, that causes more problems. Yvonne the Global Growth concerns, is that the main factor of why em currencies have not recovered and followed suit to what we are seeing in other risk assets, like stocks and credits . Is that the big headwind . Ah, at least historically it has been the headwind. But there are other factors. There were big outflows that happened in march. Those have continued in a in april. And this speaks to how big the stock of Foreign Ownership was in em fixed income, when a lot of people were looking for trade opportunities over the past decade. And when you look at the conversation you get in em currencies, it is higher than where it was prepandemic. But overall in an em currency basket, it is not necessarily that high to provide enough conversation for the risk. Yvonne you have also highlighted that it has been stable and outperforming peers. What does this mean for some of the other proxies out there, like the won . Can they still outperform . Those countries definitely can directly benefit. And the renminbi should weaken a little bit given the high proportion of the korean won. The linchpin for the currency ncny. Is we think it is a policy choice. Have preferred to insulate their domestic economies from any uncertainty or volatility shocks that are happening. With the north asian currencies a little bit, but if the korean won weakens and the dollar goes a little bit higher, we should be able to support it. How much correlation is there between oil prices and emergingmarket currencies . . Do you expect oil below 20 to put further pressure on emergingmarket currencies outside of china . Guest the oil export is going to be heard when oil stays low. Is going to be hurt when oil stays low. What we have seen historically is with when oil prices are low, it is a reflection of weak demand. It is very hard for em theencies to do well when commodities cycle is depressed, and that is similar to the Global Growth cycle being depressed. We need that turnaround in growth and commodities. Not necessarily oil, but that will affect for currencies from a relative value perspective. Low oil prices are generally not good. You go, before we let one final question. What is the best way for em currencies right now . What are you looking at . Asia, we have been long dollar taiwan, because we think we have been long the japanese against the korean won. We have been short indonesia. That is going to be a three by 12 swap. Region, we have south africa. Thank you so much. Jason daw. Still to come, there is a big week for earnings with corporate results do across the region. We way the impacts of coronavirus and ask how bad things are looking. This is bloomberg. Welcome back. Lets talk about earnings. Hundreds of countries reporting in asia this week. Investors will see the initial damages from the virusinduced economic shock. Lets bring in david ingles to give us context. As we move into these next few days, has anything emerged yet . David there has. There is a perfect story. It is on the bloomberg and on the website, and it talks about how Hong Kong Listed companies have basically been giving out dividends held giving out dividends. It is a perfect example of Corporate Finance and what the loss of Corporate Finance dictates during times of crisis. People keeping cash very close to the chest. To borrow a phrase from the godfather, keep guidance close, but cash closer. This chart shows you, do not be tempted quite so easily when you look at dividend yields. So far, to go back to my initial example, over 120 companies have so far chosen to not distribute dividends in the first half of this year. You have more Companies Hitting the debt markets. This tells you that they are betting that Central Banks can keep Interest Rates low and the cost of financing low as well. They are raising money. Overobviously favor credit dividends and equities. I think it is a theme worth watching this week when you have over 600 companies in the region with their reports. Haslinda 650 companies. Chinese banks included. A story in and of itself. What are we looking at in particular when it comes to the banks saying they want to keep cash . David yes, and there might even be a case for banks, not just chinese banks, that they need to raise money simply because of all the provisioning we have expected to see. Tomorrow will be absolutely busy for the big chinese banks. All the big names with the exception of a few coming out with earnings. What is interesting about the banks is it is the other side of the Corporate Finance story. The more they provision, in a way they are directly telling you some people will not be able to pay for their loan as well. Banks, itmes to the is not just the chinese bank story. You look at the Global Benchmark for banks. They are trading pretty much at levels asistressed chinese banks. Chart. We have another it talks about the stress test for chinese banks. To be specific, for these names as well. The pboc last year came out with a stress test, and essentially what it found. 4. 15 wth actually fell to back in an imaginative scenario, the ratio of npls using that model shows it could go up fivefold. Guess what . Growth is below that level, and it is expected to be below that level. That is one to watch, and what they say about provisioning. That will tell you a lot about the bad debts expecting to come on the books. Haslinda not surprising, no buybacks, no dividends. If you could sum up what we have seen so far, what would you say . The basict comparisons on where companies have come in relative to revenue forecasts. When the sample size was much smaller last week, when you had about 10 of companies, it was about 7030. Now it is a little bit better, 60 in favor of negative. This is consistent. , some bigu an idea names, hsbc. It is a dividend story. We have a breakdown of earnings as well. We have a lot of consumer names in china. Have the exposure to the energy sector, we dont have to talk about oil and airlines. But lots to touch on this week. It will be very busy. Haslinda outside of asia as well. Apple, for one. The 2020ithdrawing forecast due to coronavirus uncertainty, they share their First Quarter results. Guest what a wonderful start for the year for our company in incredible challenging incredibly challenging times with Revenue Growth of 23 . Our margin expanded by 10 points and earnings up over 20 . It was a great start to the year, much stronger than we anticipated a few months ago. As we go into the Second Quarter, we raised our outlook on the top line. But at the same time, we guided to lower Gross Margins. I think investors were concerned by that. But our message has been the lower growth margins in the Second Quarter functions as two things, both of which are good for our company. A verywe will qualify exciting new product in the Fourth Quarter of this year. That means a lot of expenses for this product flow through the bottom line in the Second Quarter, but it comes back in the second half of the year. Secondly, we continue to make processgress on our yields and the factory. Have gone faster than we anticipated. Those Gross Margins will compress in the Second Quarter. But we put those as healthy things and an indicator that we continue to execute in these challenging times. Vonnie have we seen the peak this year, for people working from home and bolstering demand that way . Because given your q2 forecast was a little bit light, it would seem that is the way things are going. Our outlook for q2 are solid doubledigit growth, around 12 of what we are anticipating. That is comprised of two things. One, our data centric collection as nurses are growing. Really strong growth for our data centric businesses. Pc, weother side in the see it flat in the Second Quarter. That is coming off a very strong the pc business in the First Quarter. We dont expect pcs to grow by double digits. What we are looking at in the Second Quarter is 25 growth in data centric businesses, a relatively flat pc business after very strong First Quarter growth. That was the intel ceo bob swan. We have a check of the business flash headlines. It will invest almost 6 billion in Digital Assets owned by asias richest man. Are an ecommerce venture and have gone live in three neighborhoods around mumbai. Reliance gives them access to the 400 million users currently under lockdown. Boeing is walking away from its proposed for billiondollar merger with ann briere after years of talks, as the industry faces a ravaged market. The partnership would have given boeing a number of jets to compete against airbus. The collapse of the deal will weaken boeing when it is already dealing with a slowdown in orders. At airbus is not without problems, too. They are warning staff they are leaking money and need urgent cost cuts in the rate rapidly shrinking aircraft industry. They have announced the worst case scenario. Juggling return times and they are readjusting the outlook. Coming up, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of kim jongun continues with conflicting reports for the north Korean Leaders health. This is bloomberg. The ministry over the health and whereabouts of north Korean Leader kim jongun have been growing over the weekend as multiple contradicting results suggest he is either clinging to life, or is alive and well. We go to stephen engle, tracking all the developments for us. A lot of claims out there. What do we know so far . Stephen you have to sift through it and see what holds water and what doesnt. More speculation after those reports earlier last week were also dismissed that he was not in terrible shape. South korean officials have already maintained that there are no indications from their intelligence sources that there is anything abnormal in north korea. However, there were new reports over the weekend, some saying there have been visiting medical teams from beijing, also visits by chinese diplomats. There was a report in a japanese magazine saying that kim was perhaps in a vegetative state because of Cardiovascular Surgery that went bad. Again, it is all being speculated because kim jongun has not been seen in state media for more than two weeks now. He missed his grandfathers Birthday Celebration on april 15, and some are speculating from these various reports, some are very contradictory, that he may be incapacitated, if not dead. But we have this Foreign Policy advisor to the south korean government telling sub media including cnn that he is alive and well, and has been staying in a coastal compound since april 13 with no suspicious movements detected. This is key because the website 38 north has broadcast the satellite imagery pictures showing kims special train has been spotted near the compound for a majority of the last couple of weeks. That is also where those north Korean Missile tests have been fired. And a south korean media has been reporting may be more tests are imminent. That is another speculative story from various media reports. Also, the last thing i can say is north korean state newspapers, one of them has published a message of gratitude from kim, purported to be from kim, to those who built the visitors resort. That could be a smokescreen, health to hide his concerns, because we have no physical proof or Video Evidence that kim is alive and well. It is highly speculative right now. Haslinda speaking of speculations, what do we know about possible succession plans in pyongyang . Stephen we dont know of a succession plan, other than what or whom is in his inner circle. We know he did a complete purge, nearly a complete purge of his inner circle, following the collapse of talks in hanoi last february, more than a year ago. One of the people elevated was kims 32yearold younger sister. She has been reinstated as an alternate member of the workers party. She is the only other Family Member of the chem dynasty with anything approaching real power. She is also the vice director of the propaganda and Agitation Department of the workers party. She has been put in charge of the correspondence not only with donald trump, but the south korean president. She has a fairly highprofile position under kim jongun. The others in the family, not really realistic choices. You have kim jong chol, kim jonguns only surviving brother. He is not believed to be interested in politics at all. There is the nephew, the son of kim jonguns half brother. He is not believed to be in the country anymore after his halfbrother was killed at the airport in 2017. Yvonne thanks for the update. Stephen engle, our chief asia correspondent. We continue to see risk assets outperform here today. The big story today has been the bank of japan. But Indian Markets reopening now, or are opening now. We see decent gains in mumbai. This is bloomberg. The following is a paid program. The opinions and views expressed do not reflect those of bloomberg lp, its affiliates or its employees. The following is a paid presentation brought to you by rare collectibles tv. Our country was founded on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Representing this idealism is our american eagle. The bald eagle was chosen in 1782 to represent the United States because of its long life, majestic looks, and great strength